Torsello, Davide - Pappová, Melinda: Social Networks in Movement. Time, interaction and interethnic spaces in Central Eastern Europe - Nostra Tempora 8. (Somorja-Dunaszerdahely, 2003)
Time and social networks
92 Izabella Danter divided into three categories according to their production division and production mode: 1. Subsistence peasant farms where agriculture and husbandry were in equal balance, 2. Subsistence peasant farms where husbandry was prevalent, 3. Production-oriented peasant farms where grain-growing was prevalent. Farmers in Kolárovo saw the productivity of their farm in terms of land size: “...the peasantry’s thirst for land was above everything else, and not only farm mechanisation or house building, but also nutrition and dress were subordinated to it” (Gúta ...1992: 167). The second field site of the research studying the traditional economic life of the Danube Lowland was Lel’a6. Results of this study were published in 1994, as the eight volume of the series Népismereti Könyvtár. Lel’a, a small village, is located in the north-eastern corner of the Danube Lowland, in the valley of the lower flow of the Ipeľ River. The results of this research differed from the Kolárovo example. In the examined period, Leľa’s population was 500 and two thirds of its land were not used as arable land but there were forests, meadows used as pasture, vine and vegetable gardens. Around one third of Lel’a’s population could make a living from the land. The main aim of families working on farms was to gain sufficient food for the whole year. Farms involved both agriculture and husbandry and were all tied to the market. However, this did not mean large-scale production of a specific product, it meant rather a way of complementing the income of peasants by selling small portions of diverse agricultural products. The main part of their income was not spent on the purchase of more land but on the purchase of highly appreciated folk costumes: “In the scale of values in the village principal standard was the richness of folk dresses" (Leléd Hagyományos Gazdálkodása 1994: 163). The third field site was Trhová Hradská7. Fieldwork started here in the first half of 1990s and is not yet completed. In the fourth stage of our research project the traditional economic life of two big villages neighbouring Kolárovo to the north, Vlčany and Neded8, was examined. These two villages
